Sony Spressa 6x4x4 External USB Plus CDRW Drive

Rating:
Summary: Masochists need only apply
Review: Do you enjoy throwing out 1/5 of your blank CDs? How about crashing after every other successfully burnt CD? Then this drive is for YOU!

Rating:
Summary: Dont Buy
Review: I bought this product and all it led to were problems. The software that sony provides is problematic in particular when you try to install it through a DVD drive. To make things worse it is very difficult to remove this software once it is installed. The standard uninstall was not sufficient for me and I was forced to reformat my hard drive twice.

Rating:
Summary: Sony
Review: I did not buy this particular drive but a CRX85U from Sony with an external USB port. I bought the drive to work with my laptop computer which I have 9 times out of 10 in a docking station. To my suprise, I discovered that Sony does not support the use of any (including this one)drive through a USB port on a docking station. Customer Service showed little concern and, to say the least, was not helpful. Sony may be a good product, but if something happens, you surely do not want to be owning a Sony.

Rating:
Summary: Masochists need only apply
Review: I have had this drive for almost a year now with no problems. People here have mentioned problems with it locking up during writes and having problems with the software. I had these problems until I read the documentation which told you some parameters to change if you had these problems. [Read the manual]! I haven't had to download any patches or anything to get it to work just fine since I made those changes. The USB interface is great too because you can just take it wherever you want to go. Take it to work, use it at home, or a friends house. When you get there, just plug it in. The only reason I don't give it five stars is because it was a little bigger than I expected. Since mine pretty much sits at home, this isn't a problem for me, but there are some sleek new units hitting the market now.... It will be interesting to read other peoples reviews of them after they start buying them. If you are thinking about buying this drive, I would go check the reviews...and see what people have to say [them]. Then, compare the prices. Rest assured though that this drive has been very reliable.

Rating:
Summary: What a great drive
Review: I have had this drive for almost a year now with no problems. People here have mentioned problems with it locking up during writes and having problems with the software. I had these problems until I read the documentation which told you some parameters to change if you had these problems. [Read the manual]! I haven't had to download any patches or anything to get it to work just fine since I made those changes. The USB interface is great too because you can just take it wherever you want to go. Take it to work, use it at home, or a friends house. When you get there, just plug it in. The only reason I don't give it five stars is because it was a little bigger than I expected. Since mine pretty much sits at home, this isn't a problem for me, but there are some sleek new units hitting the market now.... It will be interesting to read other peoples reviews of them after they start buying them. If you are thinking about buying this drive, I would go check the reviews...and see what people have to say [them]. Then, compare the prices. Rest assured though that this drive has been very reliable.

Rating:
Summary: A very good reliability
Review: I have this CDRW for since 4 months ago and its performance has been outstanding. It's USB Interface makes it very easy to use. Just plug it in your computer (be sure to have USB ports in your machine) and that's all; you'll see another CDRom on the explorer. You don't have to install any driver for this device to work. I have recorded both Music and Data discs and didn't have any trouble with them. With music CD's (CDR), I've played them in normal stereos, car stereos and they played as the real CD. The data discs also have worked in every machine I have tested it (including old 486 with old CDROMs) The software (CD Extreme)isn't the best I've seem but it works. When I run it on Windows 98, it had problems detecting my CDROM (I put a disc there and it didn't detect it). Also, the machine hangs during disc to disc copy operations. I downloaded a patch from Sony and this problems went away. Regardless this troubles, this is a very easy to use device. It's external and portable for a reasonable price. Don't buy it if you're using NT (it doesn't support USB interfaces); but I tried it in Windows2K and worked fine. I give it 4 stars because the problems I had at the beginning with the software (don't forget to download the patches). If you're looking for a reliable and portable CDRW device, this is the one for you.